Synchronized Starlings Fly Over Israeli Skies

After a 20-year absence, starlings have returned to Israel, where they numbered in the millions until the early 1990s, when the numbers inexplicably declined dramatically.

Hundreds of thousands of starlings can be seen moving together in a cloudlike formation called a murmuration. Experts say the birds do this as a way to find food, and as a defense mechanism against birds of prey.

Whatever their reasons for coming and going, or for making these formations, their acrobatics are amazing to see.